4th November [1848 and 1859]

Mary Brewster, SATURDAY [Nov.] 4th [1848]: “Made [New] Amsterdam [in the South Indian Ocean] this morning. At 10 come aback and 3 boats went in to fish. Got fine lot, fished till 6 PM when they came on board. All busy in cleaning and salting the fish and grateful with their good success. Got two bushels of Crawfish besides. Ends pleasant with a fair wind and we bound East once more, hoping to see larger fish this next week.

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NOTE: Mary Lawrence’s journal entry for NOVEMBER 1, 1858 is three pages long (eleven paragraphs). Additionally, she did not make any entries between November 2 through December 1. Therefore, the journal entry for this date will be divided into eleven installments, a single paragraph will be posted for the next eleven days (or through November 11).

Mary Lawrence, [Tuesday] NOVEMBER 1 [through 30] 1859: “….The princess declined taking tea with us in the cabin but partook of her poi and chickens on deck with several of her attendants, each dipping her fingers in the dish according to custom. She bears rather a disreputable character. She converses very well in English. When she left the next morning, she gave us a very polite invitation to stop at her house; but I declined, thinking it would be far more pleasanter to stop at Mr. Whitney’s, where we had stopped several times before….” (To be continued tomorrow, November 5).

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Eliza Williams, her husband and their two children, aboard the Florida anchored safely in San Francisco Bay on the afternoon of October 26, 1861; ending a three-year whaling voyage.